The Emmy award-winning producer of THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, JUDE

BRENNAN, has joined the ever-expanding roster at OXYGEN MEDIA. Brennan will

occupy the newly created bi-coastal position of senior vice president of

programming. Brennan will helm the television programming schedule for the

network. The new Oxygen channel will launch nationwide on February 2, 2000.

For the last 20 years, Brennan has served as vice president of creative

BERNARD STOLAR was named president of MATTEL INTERACTIVE, the division that

includes The Learning Company and other software and high-tech products.

Stolar joins Mattel from Sega where he helped engineer the launch of the

Sega Dreamcast video game console in the United States. At Mattel, he will

try to mend the ailing Learning Company division, whose unexpected $105

million loss in the third quarter shocked investors and diminished Mattel's

OLIVE JAR STUDIOS has opened their doors to a new executive in charge of

special venue and theme park productions, MARK RHODES. Rhodes will help the

company's new West Coast branch increase business in both long format

productions and theme park attraction work, as well as aid in the

commercial division. When at Universal, Rhodes supervised two separate

animation projects produced by Olive Jar for Universal Studios' new Islands

of Adventure theme park, which opened in Summer 1999. Rhodes' other

INFOGRAMES NORTH AMERICA, INC. announced that DEREK QUACKENBUSH and RON

RUDOLPH have joined the interactive company's senior management team.

Quackenbush takes on the role of CFO for Infogrames' North American

operations, while Rudolph will head human resources and administration as

the company's senior vice president of administration. For the past three

years, Quackenbush served as Sony's 989 Studios' director of finance and

administration. Prior to 989 Studios, he held various finance positions at

A new Switzerland-based company, CHROME Imaging, recently announced their

solution to the wonderful world of post-production Photonyx 1.5 is now

shipping. CHROME claims that the software, which is priced at a mere

US$675, was designed to address the high-end post-production market. The

program features RealTools, a painting palette which simulates real world

tools such as crayons, airbrush and charcoal. But moving on to compositing,

Photonyx features "Virtual Screens" technology which offers realtime zoom

RE:Vision Effects recently released ReelSmart Motion Blur, a plug-in for

After Effects 4.0, Commotion 2.0+ and Final Cut Pro. The plug-in is

designed to apply more natural looking motion blur to effects shots and

video sequences within After Effects. ReelSmart Motion Blur automatically

tracks every pixel in the shot which takes the handy-work out of the

process. Features include reduced strobing, fewer artifacts, and a tool

which lets one blur one image sequence using the motion of another

On Thursday, January 27, 2000, Disney announced their decision to change

the direction of their Go.com from an all purpose portal and search engine

like AOL.com, Lycos and Yahoo! to strictly an entertainment and leisure

destination. This announcement comes on the same day as The U.S. Court of

Appeals for the Ninth Circuit repealed the stay [AF 12/7/99] on a previous

injunction that bans the use of Go.com's green and yellow traffic light

logo. Disney was given the stay to allow them the chance to remove the logo

Tim Burton, creator of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, has inked a deal to

bring a series of animated shorts featuring his Stainboy character to

shockwave.com. Viewers will be able to download the charcoal-drawn

superhero's first five-minute short sometime in Spring 2000. Under the

terms of the deal, Burton will keep full artistic control over the

characters and properties. The William Morris Agency brokered the deal

which allows for the cross over to TV if the shorts become a hit on the

AMPAS announced on Wednesday, January 26, 2000, its short list of ten films

to be considered for the coveted Oscar nomination for best animated short

film. Three to five of these films will be selected as nominees and

announced at 5:30 am PST on February 15, 2000. The 10 animated short films

making the list this year are: Aardman Animations' Peter Peaks' HUMDRUM;

Character Builders' Oscar Moore has two short listed films with THE

INDESCRIBABLE NTH and THE PHOX, THE BOX AND THE LOX, which screened earlier

* Thursday, February 10, 2000. Westwood, California, U.S.A.





The Women In Animation Writers' Group will meet at Saban Entertainment at

7:30 pm. This month's topic is the animation premise and general animation

structure. The charge for the workshop is US$5. RSVP required. For more

information please contact Jean Ann Wright at: Tel.: (818) 360-8321 or

E-mail: jjwright@gte.net.

It's finally here!...The Winter 2000 Animation School Directory is your

complete, indispensable reference guide to over 440 animation related

schools and educational programs, from 37 countries...

California-based, Costa Mesa Coast College has a contract (tenure track),

full-time position to teach multimedia, 2-D and 3-D animation and

interactive concepts...

Bill's next feature, to be released in 2001, will be based on the graphic

novel "Mutant Aliens"...

The Quickdraw Animation Society web site has been updated...

This week's updates to the Calendar of Events includes twenty new events,

from animation, short film and visual arts festivals to an advertising arts

competition, to business conferences...

Visual Magic Magazine, AWN's 3D animation and digital effects on-line

magazine, has posted a new article...

Plympton's new series of comics extracted from the comic book, "Sleazy

Cartoons of Bill Plympton," is for ADULTS ONLY...

Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz...

Sign up now for AWN's ANIMATION FLASH Newsletter and your name will be

entered in a drawing to win a copy of this comprehensive history and

critique of world animation, acclaimed as a classic work of scholarship,

and an indispensable addition to any animation library. AWN is giving away

ten copies of this prestigious book to its subscribers by drawing lots.

This exceptional Millennium drawing is open to all new subscribers and

re-subscribers who buy a yearly subscription of the ANIMATION FLASH before

For the first time, Zagreb studio's library was offered for international

distribution at NATPE a year ago. The library offered all of Zagreb's

award-winning short films, including the works of such masters as Zlatko

Grgic ("Devil's Work") and Dusan Vukotic (his short "Ersatz" was the first

non-U.S. animated film to receive an Academy Award). Since then, Rembrandt

Films and Image Entertainment have released on video five hours of

animation from Zagreb Film. This is just another distribution deal, and